


midnight

by absoluteTomfoolery



Category: Defenders of Tomorrow, Leakira, Voltron: Defenders of Tomorrow, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Future, Dante is Adam, Galra Keith (Voltron), Keith is Akira, Leakira au, Leandro is Lance, M/M, all the characters have different names uwu, altean freckles, but anyway please read this i dont know what other tags to put, but shiro/ryu is NOT galran, but the ship has me QUAKING in my boots im floored by these two losers, david is matt, for example only noas brother is missing, i cant draw art or make music but this is my contribution, if i make this into multi-chapters id have to explain that later, leakira - Freeform, mikaele is hunk, no allura in this fic unfortunately!, noa is pidge, ryuusei is shiro, some similarities to canon some not, there is only a HINT of leakira bc this is supposed to focus on the characters, this is written to be like their voltron origins story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 17:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15712176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/absoluteTomfoolery/pseuds/absoluteTomfoolery
Summary: Leandro furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Was something supposed to happen at midnight? “No… it’s 10:30. Why?”“You don’t know, Andro?” she asked, and she moved forward like she was gonna tell him a secret. Her breath smelled like alcohol. Again he cringed at the nickname. “They say… that after you live in Midnight City for a while… one day, something life-changing will happen to you at midnight.”“Uh huh…” he responded skeptically. “Right.”





	midnight

**Author's Note:**

> i cant believe i wrote a 9,000 word oneshot for an au thats like. two days old
> 
> anyway credit to @captainlumin and @kciths for creating this whole leakira thing its got me buzzing to create again
> 
> follow my twitter @violentmemes
> 
> oh and also, for reference:  
> keith -- akira  
> lance -- leandro  
> hunk -- mikaele  
> pidge -- noa  
> shiro -- ryu  
> adam -- dante  
> matt -- david
> 
> and if u like good music to listen to while you read, here's what i recommend! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1VzzNbfPaM

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All of the roads in all of the world led them to this: catharsis beneath the moonlight, genesis before the seashore.

Loud.

That was the first word Leandro said when he arrived at Midnight City. At least, that’s what his aunt and uncle had told him.

He doesn’t remember a time before he lived in the city. Someone once told him that the neon lights hypnotize you into forgetting anywhere else. _That’s why it’s so densely populated_ , they joked, _because people get sucked in._

In a way, they had been right. The neon lights were hypnotizing. However, after living there for fifteen years, he’s gotten completely accustomed to the noise and the glare of the place. Everyone was always moving all the time, always talking all the time, and the city waited for no one, spared no one.

 _The lights are hypnotizing_ , he thought to himself as he leaned on the balcony of his friend’s apartment. _And they are inescapable._

He doesn’t know when this obsession with the moon began. At first it was just a child’s curiosity for the unknown. He never knew a sky without skyscrapers covering it. It wasn’t something he could comprehend, much less witness with his own eyes. The cartoons, the stories, the photographs of a sky littered in tiny white dots-- _stars_ , they were called --were never his reality.

Vacationing was hard with eight other family members. The farthest the Diaz family has ever gone from Midnight City was to the beach that was an hour away, but the neon glow of the metropolitan center choked the heavens even from almost a hundred miles away.

He recalls seeing the moon a couple of times, peeking out from behind the metal and glass pillars. A glimpse between flying cars and hoverbikes and walkways, gone in the blink of an eye, covered by other colorful distractions.

When he had been invited to a party at Mina’s place, he jumped at the chance even though he had studying to do. She was an old friend who he often tutored, so he knew she was crazy rich with a penthouse apartment. Why she was going to his crummy little high school he’d never know; what mattered to him most at the moment was the view before him.

Here he could see the tops of few buildings, a blessed and rare sight. No stars in sight from the light pollution, as expected, but there was his love and divine fascination: the moon, in all of her white glory. She was waning, a tiny sliver like a smile shining down at him with a gentle gaze. In her shadow he could see few and faint twinkling lights, the Moon Base Alpha with its few and tiny branches.

Leandro sat down on one of the cushioned chairs behind him, stretching out his long, long legs. Through the glass doors that led to the balcony, more neon lights flashed in indistinct patterns, and music boomed from speakers. Bodies, mere shadows, were pressed tight up against each other as they danced. If he closed his eyes for a second, he could pretend that he was alone. He could pretend that he was the only one in the world, just him and his moon.

He knew it wasn’t sentient, but he still felt a shock of guilt every time he saw those lights in its darkness. _For the sake of progress,_ he thought, _we soiled one of the universe’s most magnificent creations._

Still, there wasn’t much he could do about it. That was the human race’s habit, it seemed: in their quest for attention from any other sentient beings, they were willing to go the farthest distance possible, no matter the stakes. It took a slew of natural disasters in the mid 2000s that snapped them out of their hellish reverie and made them focus on their internal issues, but it only lasted a moment, a mere blink of an eye. As it turned out, environmental concerns became easy to resolve once everyone started losing their homes and their businesses.

But once that had been resolved, or at least controlled, humanity turned its eyes to the skies once again, and rockets, spaceships, spacesuits and space-vacations started becoming the norm. The heavens were unreachable to him.

 _This_ , he told himself as he held his pocket telescope in his hand, _is the closest I’ll ever be to seeing what the sky is like._

Leandro wasn’t the type to dwell on things like this for very long. In fact, just this single instance was rare in itself-- he was usually a very happy, outgoing guy. He loved to make friends and help other people, though sometimes his own behavior came off as overwhelming or energetic. He was always tapping his foot or clicking a pen or fiddling with tiny clicking cubes. But it’s moments like these that slow him down sometimes, bringing him to awe at his unreachable dream.

He checked his watch, the digital screen reading _22:22 PM_ in bright neon turquoise. If he didn’t get home soon, he’d have to explain to his aunt why, and he calculated that’d take away at least thirty minutes of well-deserved sleep-- and he needed all the sleep he could get.

Suddenly, he heard the screen door behind him open slowly, and out stepped the host of the party in all of her drunken stupor. Mina laughed as she stumbled and almost fell, and Leandro felt himself tense. He didn’t need to witness an accident tonight. “Hey, hey,” he warned. “Careful, Mina.”

He slowly pulled her away from the balcony and sat her down next to him, her giggles never dying over absolutely nothing. Not to mention she was hiccuping a lot, and every time it interrupted her laugter, she just got louder. Meanwhile, he stared into her eyes, checking for any sign that she had been drugged. _Doesn’t seem like it._

Eventually she calmed down, and she just sat there, tiredly staring out into the night just like he had. “It’s pretty.”

“Hm?”

She turned to look at Leandro. “The moon. It’s pretty.”

He turned to look at where she was staring-- a round white sign for a rooftop restaurant --and huffed a laugh. “Yeah, it is.”

“Y’know, ‘Andro,” she began, and he inwardly cringed at the nickname. “They say if you stare at the moon too long, you’ll start hearing voices. Did ya know that?”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “No, I didn’t.”

“Mmhmm. You’ll hear a voice, annnnddd…. You’ll turn into a werewolf.”

Mina broke out into giggles again and he sighed to himself. She was bubbly enough as it was during school hours-- figures that’d be amplified once she’s had too many drinks. “You alright, Mina?” he asked her, and he leaned forward to examine her again. “You didn’t drink anything really bad, did you?”

“Hmm… one of the guys from my chem period snuck innnn... a bottle of _Ichor._ ” she answered. “Who knew it was’so strong?”

“Everybody, Mina, everybody knew.” he retorted.

“What time is it?” she asked suddenly. “Is it midnight yet?”

Leandro furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Was something supposed to happen at midnight? “No… it’s 10:30. Why?”

“You don’t know, Andro?” she asked, and she moved forward like she was gonna tell him a secret. Her breath smelled like alcohol. Again, he cringed at the nickname. “They say… that after you live in Midnight City for a while… one day, something life-changing will happen to you at midnight.”

“Uh huh…” he responded skeptically. “Right.”

“Itszzz… true…” He frowned as she started to doze off, and grabbed an old blanket from nearby, covering her with it. It was sure to get cold later-- part of the reason why he needed to get home _now_ , or he’d really regret it.

He stood up and tucked his telescope in his jacket pocket, rubbing its smooth lens in reassurance. It had been a gift for him from his biological parents, which he had never met. He had always known he was adopted, even before his aunt and uncle sat him down and explained everything. Somehow, he had just… felt it.

 _“We felt now was the right time to tell you, because you’re old enough to receive this.”_ his uncle had said. He pulled out a small, lacquered wooden box with golden details and navy blue velvet lining the interior. Inside was a small, golden telescope-- just a little bit bigger than his own hand. Back then, anyway.

Now its length was barely the width of his palm. Still, its golden sheen never faded (he took care of it very, very well) and he carried it with him everywhere he went. He realized, then, that this obsession with the moon and the sky and the stars might have started there. Maybe.

He shoved his way through the crowd that was packed like sardines, waved a quiet goodbye to the cryptic but also piss drunk host, and quietly stepped into the elevator. It was late.

He leaned against the walls of the enclosed space, hearing the pounding music of the penthouse apartment fading against the slow electronic tunes playing weakly from the speaker above him. The lights were dim and gradient, switching from cool tones to warm tones slowly, noticeably.

He got what he wanted: a beautiful view of the night sky, awash in light pollution, with only the gentle white moon above spared. And yet it didn’t feel like enough. It felt like every time he went back down to ground level, every time he turned his back on his life’s fascination, a cloud of smoke would slowly choke him.

He didn’t _hate_ his life, per se. He just wished he could see more, be more, fly far and see everything there was to see. He could become an astronaut, he had the brains for it. He could get there. A part of him wanted to get there, _needed_ to get there. He _needed_ to touch the sky.

Leandro closed his eyes. Whatever. He’d probably finish high school, get a job at his uncle’s place, take over once he was ready and never see the sky again.

As he walked out through the front lobby, his eyes caught a poster for Moonshine Beach, where his family had gone to before.

_Or maybe not._

 

* * *

 

Akira didn’t really think of himself as the kind of guy to pick fights, but he certainly prided himself on finishing them.

A lifetime of dance lessons and martial arts training did wonders for his speed and agility, and increased his chances of coming out of a scuffle unscathed. He could pull off flawless flying kicks, knock out his opponents with a heel to the jaw, or even just throw a hook and end it all there. But against eight other guys? It really didn’t seem like the odds were in his favor.

The reason he was even butting heads against these _neanderthals_ was because he had caught them loitering around the back entrance of the gym where he trained, alcohol on their breath and vulgar comments on their tongues. He had only seen four of them then and figured they were easy to outsmart, size and drunken haze already calculated. But then he turned his head, and there came the whole pack of dogs.

For a brief second, he thought he could just run. A tall, cement jungle like Midnight City never lacked in ways to get to where you wanted to go-- metaphorically or physically.

But then, his back hit a cold cement wall sticky with some strange substance. Nevermind. Midnight City sucked.

Akira had never been very social. His tendency to say whatever came to mind often got him in trouble, and even though he had gotten better at learning what things were appropriate to say and what weren’t, things seemed to end up like this more often than not. Big cities were teeming with people after all, and it’s impossible to avoid social situations if you live in one.

But, back to the matter at hand: eight men were about to jump him, he was totally cornered, and all he had was his gym bag. He needed some sort of advantage, or a leg up, just any sort of leverage. Wait… _his gym bag!_

He reached in as the men approached and pulled out his bright red wraps, his name written in black sharpie at the very end. This was all the leverage he needed. Quickly, he threw his bag at the man in the middle, and the one on his left jumped into action.

He wrapped both ends of the strong fabric around his wrists and used its loose center to grab the back of his neck as he approached. This pulled him forward, so he kneed his abdomen at a rapid speed, wincing as he saw him fall to the floor.

One down. Seven to go.

Two others ran to him, and he waited to dodge until the very last second, the both of them crashing against the cement wall behind him in their drunken stupor. What had he been worried about? They were too wasted to do any damage. He just needed five more.

He felt a hand on his wrist and he turned to swing, fist already poised high, until he blinked. The alley wasn’t that dark anymore-- there were lights. Red and blue ones. Radio chatter, footsteps, deeper voices.

His purple eyes met green ones, and for a second he froze in shock. _Dante?_

He stood still as he was handcuffed, and looked around to see the rest of the drunken men held down on the dirty floor or clumsily trying to run away from the police. He didn’t bother resisting against his brother’s fiance; if anything he was relieved. Had it been any other police officer, he would’ve gotten in trouble. _Legal_ trouble, anyway.

As soon as he was brought back towards the main street, he was ushered into a navy blue Dragonfly with a golden symbol on its side, and he sat quietly in the backseat, waiting to be lectured.

Dante wasn’t getting in yet, though-- he was arguing passionately with one of his superiors, gesturing towards the men that were apprehended and lined up against a wall. People had gathered, but then he watched as they quickly lost interest.

Then, the man turned and walked back towards the car, sitting inside and slamming the door shut. He hadn’t started the engine yet. When he turned to look at him, his green eyes burned with disappointment-- angry disappointment. “Akira Kogane,” he began, “did we or did we not tell you to _stop_ getting into fights?”

“Dante, I know it looked bad, but I swear they came at me first--”

“I don’t _care_ , Kira. This is the _third time_ I’ve had to beg my superior officer to let you off the hook. Soon they’re gonna think I’m raising a criminal. It doesn’t matter who started the fight, if there’s any way you can avoid getting involved, just _do it._ Walk away. Don’t listen, take another exit, I don’t care.” he huffed. “Ryu and I are both worried about you. We don’t want to see you come home with bruises or broken bones or… or, god forbid, not coming home at all. Please just stop putting yourself in danger like this.”

The teenager crossed his arms and looked away at the flashing neon lights of the city. _Hypnotizing_. “I… I know. I’m sorry.” Akira sighed and met his eyes, but quickly looked away. “I don’t want to worry you.”

“If you know, and you’re sorry, don’t do it again.” he finished.

Dante had a deep frown on his dark skin, but then he took a deep breath and released it. His hard eyes softened. “I’m gonna take you home, alright?”

The boy nodded, and he kept staring out the windows of the car, still captivated by the neon hues.

 

* * *

 

Noa bit her bottom lip as she worked at her station.

Their apartment was small, as all others were nowadays, but her father and brother’s career as engineers and scientists could afford them an extra room as a lab-- with the only catch being that she’d share her bedroom with David. But David was gone now.

The device she was working on, a clunky metal box with tons of screens and wires sticking out of it, looked pathetic under the single dim light above her. She had been hunched over her work in the same position for hours, and her back was _really_ starting to kill her.

The girl glanced at the time on the clock-- _10:35 PM_ \--and sighed. She’d have to go to bed soon. She had classes tomorrow morning and she really didn’t want to be later than she usually was since she had an important test. _Astronomy is easy_ , she had told herself earlier as she opened her toolbox, _I don’t need to study._

 _“Not studying before a big test can damage your confidence,”_ David had once told her, _“and that’s the worst thing that can happen. You can have the brains but not the guts.”_

Noa stood up and stretched her legs, feeling her joints and muscles finally creak and pop with her strained movement. She was tired. It was late. But her chest ached with the desperation to finish this receiver as soon as possible.

It had been months and months of grueling work like this ever since her brother disappeared. Their shared bedroom soon turned into a pile of parts and wires that stopped at its exact midway point, because _I don’t want him to come back his side being a mess_.

The news of his disappearance covered many media outlets for a while before the country moved on. _Young pilot disappears while flying over the Gulf,_ she had read, _on the night before his scheduled pilot’s exam._

No debris had been found, even with all of the newest technology and sonar scanners. No plane, no body, no black box. Nothing.

His disappearance had devastated their family. Their father threw himself into his work and her mother fell into a deep depression. Noa focused on finding a way back to him, or bringing him home, or anything. There was no excuse for missing flights now. Maybe a hundred years ago, sure, but not today. Not when there were so many ways to find something you’ve lost.

But this _stupid_ radio wouldn’t turn on, and it was getting late, and she _needed_ it to work for her peace of mind.

She was tired. She was so, so tired. She was frustrated, too, and hungry since she skipped dinner to work. She wasn’t gonna get an A on her test tomorrow even though she had promised David three years ago it’d be 4.0 GPAs in this household only, her head and her eyes hurt from the dim light because David forgot to get new lights and Dad was never home, and she just really _really_ needed this _stupid_ machine to _work_ \--!

Noa punched the side of the big metal box, but she immediately winced as she felt the dull pain on her knuckles. “Ah, _shit!”_

Suddenly, the radio came to life, letting out a loud screech before it faded into static. _Huh. Maybe violence_ is _the answer._

She fiddled with the controls, which worked as expected, and put on her headphones. She wasn’t angry anymore, or hungry, or tired. Now she was just excited.

She didn’t know what she was looking for specifically; the way that she engineered the device would enable her to find the black box and communicate with it. Modern flight recorders like the ones that were on her brother’s plane came with long-distance transmissions that play for months before the box runs out of energy.

She scrolled through the channels slowly, her movements miniscule. Something, there had to be something, she has to be able to get _something_ . She worked on this thing for _weeks_ , this was the latest model, she could _patent it_ and make millions if she just--

_“...-- Brenner, student pilot--...”_

Noa froze. She scrolled back.

_“... --de… ding… flying ob... et…--”_

Just a little more…

_“...-- dark object shaped like some sort of manta ray without a tail? Emitting bright purple light and moving very rapidly. Approaching rapidly, transmitting loud sound waves. Hovering above and--...”_

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This was the black box audio. This was his last transmission. He didn’t crash, he was an excellent pilot, _of course_ it wasn’t his fault. She knew that, she had known that, and everybody else shrugged it off as just another case of a stupid kid getting ahead of himself.

No, this was different. This was completely different.

She turned to one of the screens to try and track the black box’s location-- her hands shook as she input code after code and tapped away before a red dot finally showed up on a radar screen.

 _But… it shouldn’t be this far from the Gulf…_ she thought. _It’s… at Moonshine Beach?_

Noa looked around. Her mother was asleep, her father was probably working late again. She had school tomorrow, sure, but the beach was only an hour away. She could drive, right? She didn’t have her license, and she wasn’t that good at sneaking out, but she could get the black box. The shore was shallow, she could swim for it.

She could find David. She could find out everything.

She rushed over to the closet and opened the doors wide. Inside was her pair of overalls, her boots, and one of David’s old shirts. _It’s fine,_ she told herself, _I’m not headed to a fashion show._

She changed out of her uniform skirt hurriedly and tugged on her clothes. _The receiver. I need the receiver._

She grabbed an old cardboard box and stuffed the machine inside, being extra careful not to move anything that didn’t need moving, and then picked it up. She needed to go, and she needed to go _now_ before someone else found the box.

 _There’s no way the investigators didn’t find it. There’s no way they don’t already have this technology. They left it there for a reason, but now I have the chance to get it back._ She thought.

She opened the door into the hallway, and just before she was about to step out, her phone pinged in her pocket.

 

> **From:** Leassdro
> 
> _Hope you’re not busy-- I’ve got a death wish in my heart and a hunger to see the night sky!! Wanna pick up Mikey and head to the beach?_

 

* * *

 

Mikaele’s evening had been going just fine before Leandro called him.

He had been sitting calmly on his couch, studying for the test he had the next day, surrounded by piles of papers and a glass tablet on one hand. Both of his moms had already gone to bed, and he could see from the corner of his eye their bedroom light switch off.

This was how his evenings usually went ever since he entered high school. He was a morning person despite his circumstances, but assignments were important and if he needed to lose sleep to get good grades, then that’s what he’d do.

It was times like these, the lonely ones, where he wished he wasn’t an only child. Leandro had his cousins, Noa had her brother ( _nevermind, yikes, let’s not go there_ ), but he only had his moms. Which was fine, totally fine! He loved them both equally and enjoyed their company greatly. After all, they were the ones that taught him how to cook, and it became his passion.

But sometimes, he wished he had someone to help him study during times like these. His parents both worked, and they’d come home late too often, well after he had made dinner. They never really went out, either. And if he asked them for help doing his homework, they’d just make some excuse about how they didn’t remember the subject and start watching TV or something. He didn’t want to seem ungrateful, but sometimes he felt lonely.

That’s not to say other people don’t make up for it, though. Leandro is the best friend he’s ever had, despite his tendency to sneak out all the time and drag him along. He was funny and cool and got along well with people. Noa was pretty awesome, too-- she loved his cooking and always turned to him for help with studying and school-related stuff.

But it was late, and he knew he shouldn’t bother them. Leandro was probably on the way home from the party he said he’d be attending, and Noa was most likely already asleep. Aside from them, he didn’t really have anyone else to turn to. Sure he had a couple other friends here and there, but none that he trusted as much as his best friends.

He looked down at the glass screen of his tablet, and glared at the textbook he had downloaded. He was tired, and now he was sad. He didn’t want to study or take a test, he wanted to _sleep_ . He’s lost so much sleep this past semester that even if he knocked out for three years it still wouldn’t make up for the hours lost _or_ the emotional toll.

He loved engineering and physics and astronomy and what have you-- it was great, awesome, super cool. But staying up for four more hours for some stupid test that wouldn’t matter in ten years? _It’s amazing to think that despite it being almost three hundred and fifty years since the founding of this great nation,_ he thought, _the scholastic system is still garbage._

A part of him wished he hadn’t dug himself into this hole. _If you weren’t so boring, you wouldn’t be studying. You’d be at that party Leandro’s at, having fun like the teenager you are. You are a teenager, right? And not a forty-year-old man?_

Thoughts like that plagued him constantly. He was a pretty anxious guy that was scared of a lot of things, and more often than not he’d choose studying and quiet time over anything remotely “fun”. Secretly, he envied his best friend for being so social and easy to get along with. He had way more friends, connected with way more people, and was much more fun and energetic. Mikaele was quiet and reserved and untrusting, studious and anxious and boring, boring, boring. _The only times that I ever do anything risky,_ he thought to himself, _is when Leandro has to force me._

He turned off his tablet, then looked at the digital clock on the wall. _10:40 P.M._ Maybe he could watch a show on TV? Take a little break? He didn’t want to do anything that’d wake his parents up, so his options were very limited. _If I go to sleep now, I can wake up early and study then._ He frowned to himself. _Yeah, right._

Suddenly, his phone lit up, and he looked at the screen.

 

> **From:** Best Friend :)
> 
> _Hunk, I’m picking you up in ten minutes. Get dressed, bring shoes you don’t mind getting sand in._

 

… _HUH?_

 

* * *

 

Ryuusei has been waiting for Akira to get home for half an hour before he heard the front door’s lock open.

He had been sitting in his favorite armchair, reading a book on his tablet and listening to music at a low volume, trying desperately not to sleep. The last time he had gone to bed before Akira got home, he arrived covered in cuts and bruises and needing to go to the hospital. He really didn’t want to relive that again.

This time, when the front door opened, Dante stepped in with his little brother in tow. His fiancé  looked stressed, but luckily for him he had _That Look_ in his eye that implied his shift was over and he wasn’t just dropping Akira off. However, the teenager was scowling and his left eye was twitching; he was still wearing his gym clothes and he had what looked like wraps poking out of the pocket of his jeans. “We’re home.”

Ryu lowered his tablet and stood up, eyeing the pair carefully. “What happened now?”

“Akira got into a fight, one against _eight_. We got there before it turned into anything dangerous, since a supervisor from inside the gym had already reported the suspicious individuals.” His fiancé explained.

“I can handle myself,” Akira snapped, and he removed Dante’s hand from his shoulder. “They were all drunk and easy to take down. I would’ve been fine.”

Ryuusei sighed, sharp and desperately trying to control his anger. He knew his little brother tried to communicate and interact with others as best he could, but sometimes he’d slip up and situations like these would occur. However, he didn’t have the kind of patience or nerves to constantly have to patch him up after a bad fight. It worried him sick, and the thought that one night he might not come home genuinely made him nauseous.

He knew Dante felt the same way; they began dating two years after the accident when Ryu became Akira’s legal guardian, and he and his little brother have grown very close since then. They were both obviously concerned for his health and safety, and he was sure that Akira understood that, but he certainly didn’t act like it. “This isn’t about whether you can handle yourself or not. This is about the fact that we’re running out of bandages and I can’t stomach seeing you hurt anymore.”

“I don’t _ask_ to fight people, Ryu, I just get mad and then they get mad and then—” Akira crossed his arms, his deep frown never moving. He wasn’t meeting Ryu’s eyes. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal? Are you _kidding_ me? What if they were sober? What if one of those guys had a knife, huh? Or a gun? Or-or a taser? Then what? You’re gonna hit him with your gym bag? You’re gonna try and knock out eight _sober_ guys at once?” Ryu’s eyes were sad and angry and disappointed all at once. “Don’t risk your life over something stupid. I can’t take that.”

“Ryu—”

“You’re grounded.”

Even Dante looked surprised. His fiancé sent him an _Are you sure that’s the best choice right now?_ type of look, but he wasn’t budging. In the tense silence that followed, he ran his hands through his black hair and sighed. “Go to bed. It’s late and you have school tomorrow.”

Akira glared at Ryu for a good long while before turning and leaving, slamming his bedroom door shut.

The man sat back down on his recliner and rubbed his temples, trying desperately to relax. As the older brother, he had been used to having responsibility over Akira, but parenting was an entirely different scenario. When he felt Dante’s hand gently take his, he opened his eyes and smiled. _At least I’m not alone._  “Hey,” he greeted quietly. Dante always knew how to calm him down.

“Hey,” the other replied. “You sure he’ll be alright? You don’t ground him very often.” Dante sat down on the couch beside him, shrugging off his police jacket.

“He just needs some space and some time to calm down.” Ryuusei assured him. “He needs to know he can’t be getting in trouble like this.”

“In his defense, Ryu, the men he was fighting with were waiting around the back of the gym. They were probably gonna jump someone. I don’t think he necessarily picked the fight.”

The other man sighed. “I don’t doubt that, Dante, I just… What’s he doing leaving through the back, anyway? Why does he put himself in dangerous situations like that? I get it if it’s a one-time thing, but he doesn’t have to--...” He brought his hand up to rub his temples again. “He could’ve just gone back inside.”

“We’re lucky we got there when we could. One of them did have a knife on him, but they were all drunk. Some more than others, but… still.” Dante grabbed his fiance’s hand and held it tight. “I just feel like we should go easier on him. He was probably scared, too, he just doesn’t show it.”

Ryu was quiet when he realized Dante was probably right. He was glad that Akira had taken all of those fighting lessons when he was younger because it certainly helped him protect himself, but he never thought to consider his brother’s feelings in these kinds of situations. He figured he’d get angry or frustrated, but scared was now looking a lot more likely.

“I’m gonna go talk to him.” he decided then, and he stood up, squeezing Dante’s hand one last time.

He slowly walked over to his brother’s bedroom door and knocked gently. “Akira, can we talk?” he asked. No answer.

“Akira, open the door, please.”

Again, no answer.

“Akira--” Ryu twisted the knob and was surprised to find it unlocked. He poked his head inside of the darkness and frowned. Of course he’d be brooding with the lights off, that was totally an Akira thing to do. He turned on the lights.

His brother wasn’t there.

His bed was made, his room was clean, and his closet was closed. There were no signs of activity, nothing except a missing backpack and a laptop half-shut. He stepped inside and looked around before noticing that his window was open just a bit, and the cool night air was creating a draft. “Dante! He’s not here.”

The other man rushed to his side and looked around with a scowl. “Damn it. When did he--?”

Suddenly, from outside, they heard the roar of Ryu’s hoverbike take off into the distance.

“I’ll get my car, you try to find out where he’s headed.” Dante said, and he took off, leaving Ryu in his brother’s room.

As far as he knew, Akira wasn’t the type to just run away from his problems, but he had been right to say he needed time and space to calm down. He supposed this was his way of doing it.

Ryu looked around for any clues until he reached his laptop, and he opened it slowly, digging around for anything that’d be useful. He found a tab open for directions to the public beach access _an hour away_ . He groaned. _You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me._

 

* * *

 

Leandro got to Noa’s house around 10:45, and pulled up in his old, pre-owned Landmaster. He was dressed in his usual green jacket and navy turtleneck, goggles on the top of his head, a lollipop sticking out of his mouth. And, oh, he was parked right outside her fire escape.

She climbed out of her bedroom window as quietly as possible, having already set her decoy on her bed, but struggled because of the huge box she was carrying. She needed to take her device with her, there was no other option, and Leandro would just have to deal with the space the box took up in his cruiser.

“Woah, hey, what’cha got there?” he asked, and he leaned back in his seat, the glass of the vehicle lowered, waiting for her to get on. “Hope it’ll be paying for gas, too.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she sighed, and she jumped on board, the small ship dipping low for just a second as she got in the passenger’s side. As much as she complained about flying cars, they were awesome for situations like these-- so long as the traffic officers didn’t see them.

“I was surprised you’d be as enthusiastic to go to the beach as you are.” Leandro commented. “Figured you’d be tinkering around or something.”

“I was,” she answered, and she grabbed the box she had thrown in the backseat, pulling it onto her lap. “That’s why I agreed to go with you in the first place.”

“What do you mean?”

The girl sighed. “I’ll tell you on the way, yeah? Let’s hurry before my mom wakes up.”

“Touchy.”

Leandro shifted into drive and the windshields around them came up, covering them in a dome of glass that muted some of the city’s noise. Quietly he pressed a couple of buttons and old music started playing at a low volume.

“Is this… _80s_ music?” Noa asked, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you serious?”

“What? It’s _good_.” he scoffed. “Doesn’t matter that it’s old. Style never dies.”

The girl beside him rolled her eyes. “Please listen to music from this century like the rest of us.”

The drive to Mikaele’s place was thankfully short, but inside, their friend was riddled with uncertainty. He had already gotten dressed, just like Leandro told him, but there was a pit in his stomach that told him that going out wasn’t gonna go well.

 

> **From:** Best Friend :)
> 
> _We’re outside kingg_

_You’re a coward. You’re only gonna ruin the outing,_ a voice in his head told him. _You’re boring and a wet towel._

He sat down on his couch and nervously fidgeted with his thumbs, staring down at the pile of study materials he had brought together. He needed to study. It was a better choice to study. He had a test the next morning and even if he didn’t study, even if he went to sleep now, it’d be better than being unfocused _and_ unprepared because he snuck out. He had to be responsible. He had to be smart about this.

_You’re boring, and annoying, and you always drag everyone down._

But then, just as he was about to text back his best friend and reject his offer, a burning feeling replaced the shameful one in his stomach. He was seventeen years old, he was young, he needed to get out more. Life was short, wasn’t it? Tests weren’t forever. His best friends wanted to hang out with him, and if they wanted to hang out with him, that meant he wasn’t boring. It meant he wasn’t annoying. Right?

He grabbed his jacket and shrugged it on. Fuck it. He’s gonna live on the wild side, just this once.

 

> **To:** Best Friend :)
> 
> _omw_

He left through his front door, thankful that he didn’t set the alarm, and he snuck past the front desk, then quickly ran down the front steps of his apartment building. The night was just as bright as it always was, and the glass-walled convenience store outside his place wasn’t helping the situation.

Sitting in the driver’s seat of the levitating vehicle was his best friend with a huge grin on his face, waving at him wildly. “Hey buddy!”

“Hey, Leo! Hey, Noa.”

Noa was sitting in the passenger’s seat, and he climbed on behind her, the vehicle tipping slightly just as it had before. “Hey, Mikey.”

“Noa thought you’d say no for sure since you both have a test tomorrow, but we’re so glad you’re coming along!” Leandro exclaimed as he pulled the windshields up. “Isn’t the city nice at night?”

The boy in question laughed. “The same as it always is, Leo.”

“Well, then! It’s a good thing we’re going to the beach.”

Mikaele froze. “W-Wait, the beach? I thought we’d be going to, like, a store or something, I didn’t know we were going to the _beach_!” he exclaimed. As they drove off, he began to panic, the lights zooming past them in a blur. “L-Leo, the beach is an hour away!”

“Oh, relax. We’ll be back before school starts, we won’t be there for long.” Noa said, and she turned her seat around to face him. “It’ll be fine. We can quiz each other on the way if it makes you feel better.”

He was about to respond with another angry comment before he paused. Actually, that did make him feel better. He needed to relax. “Alright. Fine.” He glanced down then to look at the box in her lap. “What’s that?”

“Yeah, Noa, you didn’t mention what that was.” Leandro added, and he glanced over. “What’s in there?”

“Oh, uh, well,” she bit her lip nervously, but then she opened the cardboard box up and pulled out the radio covered in wires and screens. “It’s a receiver. I’ve been, uh, tracking something.”

Mikaele’s eyes widened. “Did you… did you actually get something? Did you find the black box?”

The girl nodded, and she heard Leandro gasp from her right. She turned her seat to face him, too. “Noa, are you serious? Did you find out what happened to David?”

She was silent as she thought about how to break the news. They wouldn’t believe her, she doesn’t think anybody would. But David wouldn’t lie, so hopefully they’d understand that, too. “Yes, I did.”

“So what happened?” Mikey asked. “Are you okay?”

Noa blinked. She hadn’t been expecting him to ask if _she_ was okay, but she nodded anyway. “It was playing the recording, just like it was supposed to, and I caught the transmission. Apparently, before the crash, he had, uh… he had seen something.”

“Seen something? Like what?” Leandro asked. “Like another plane?”

“K-Kind of.” she answered, and she looked between the two. Then, she saw their faces dawn in realization. Mikey was shocked, while Leandro was just straight-up horrified. “He said it looked like a sort of, um, manta ray. Like it had two wings, but it was mechanical and it didn’t have a tail?”

“Maybe if you find the black box it’ll give you some sort of clue as to what happened. Maybe, like, trace elements or something?” Mikaele suggested. “What kind of animal looks like a manta ray without a tail and in the _sky_?”

“He… he said it looked mechanical, Mikey. I don’t think it was an animal, I think it was a ship.”

“What, like a spaceship?” Leandro asked, and his voice shook for a second. “Noa, are you sure?”

“I know what I heard. He said it was emitting light and strange sounds. And then the recording looped.” she explained. “But I need to find that box and investigate. I need to know what happened.”

The other two were silent.

Leandro was lost in thought as he drove, and about twenty minutes into the ride, they finally felt the dense center of the city melt away into lower, shorter buildings, and finally into suburbs. The idea of alien life didn’t frighten him, per se, but being involved in what felt like something illegal put him on edge.

Noa didn’t have to explain the fact that this entire trip would have to be classified, he knew that already. If she found the black box, then it was a given the government did as well, but they didn’t make the findings public. They just left it there, and they had been lucky enough to track it to the beach.

But why the beach? Why would the black box be _there_? It certainly wasn’t light enough that it was easy to carry by currents, that was for sure. Unless… something picked it up? Or it got attached to something? He didn’t know much about how those things worked, but he had heard about some sort of mandatory adjustment that made the boxes magnetic or something. Maybe it got caught on the bottom of a ship, the ship passed by, and it fell?

No, something was off about the entire thing. It was more likely that it was retrieved and on its way by boat here. That had to be it. Right?

 

* * *

 

Akira didn’t know why he had stolen Ryu’s hoverbike. He could’ve taken Dante’s car. He could’ve _very_ _easily_ taken Dante’s car. He mildly knew how to ride a hoverbike due to Ryu teaching him _sometimes_ , but he was so desperate to leave, he took whatever vehicle was closest. And if it was the hoverbike, then so be it.

As he drove, he realized he was tired. Not sleepy, per se, but just tired-- tired of being at home, tired of going to school, tired of the city. He hadn’t wanted to make his older brother upset, but somehow, he just kept messing up, and he didn’t want to be reminded of that by staying in his room. Just then, he had been overwhelmed with longing for what their family used to be. So he left for the beach, because he wanted to remember the last happy memory he’d had with his dad before he died.

For some reason, Hiroshi Kurogane had really loved fishing. He loved night-fishing especially, said going out into a boat in the middle of the ocean and looking at the sky was one of the most religious experiences in the world. Akira wasn’t religious, but the first time they went, he realized his father was right. It was like the darkness that was normally choked by buildings and artificial light could finally breathe; it opened like a can of paint, splattered above him in an array of glitter and watercolor. And it had been just the three of them then: Ryu, Akira, and their father.

He never met his mom, and he’s never seen her in any photos. According to Ryu, she died after giving birth to him due to complications during the process; their father had been heartbroken for many years after she passed, and even destroyed the majority of their family photographs during that time, but he eventually recovered. However, they had lost contact with a lot of their extended family except for their aunt Cheryl, who had been their mother’s sister and took care of them well.

The night of the big accident, Ryu and their father had been talking about going fishing, but they had both insisted on Akira staying behind, citing that he had school the following day and that Cheryl would take care of him until they came back. But when only Ryu returned, explaining that their father had died, Akira had been devastated. However, his older brother had been even worse.

He refused to talk about it for many months, frequently waking up in the middle of the night screaming their father’s name. From what his aunt had told him, apparently their father had gotten a heart attack and, in his shock, fell off the boat and drowned. Shortly after that happened, and even though he was struggling with his own trauma, Ryu had rejected their aunt’s offer to move in with her and became Akira’s sole legal guardian, assuming full responsibility.

To this day, he never understood why he had done that. If they had both moved in with their aunt, he would’ve never had to quit college, work in a factory, and lose his arm. To this day he felt guilty for his own existence-- if he weren’t around, his older brother wouldn’t be working himself to death to support him. When Dante moved in, things certainly got easier, but the guilt was still there. The last thing he wanted was to stress his brother out even more than he needed to, or stress him out at all. And yet there he was, running away to the beach like an irresponsible kid.

He knew his brother was right. He had no business getting into trouble as often as he did, but he couldn’t help it. No matter how hard he tried, he just kept saying the wrong thing, and then the situation would snowball and he’d get angry and start throwing punches.

But that didn’t matter. He didn’t want to think about that right now. All he wanted was to just… break away from it all and go to the beach. The beach. It was calling him.

His drive wasn’t long, especially since he was breaking all of the traffic laws. He was going at speeds he really wasn’t supposed to go, but there was a feeling in his chest that couldn’t be ignored.

At about halfway, he stopped at a traffic light, and sighed as he sat back. He shouldn’t have taken the bike. Hell, he didn’t even bring a helmet, he had just been riding with the air whipping his face. Whatever. It’s not like it mattered much.

On the lane beside him, a Landmaster pulled up with three people in it-- all of which he vaguely recognized from school. There was Leandro, that guy that everybody seemed to like, Noa, the girl that had the top grades in the whole school, and Mikaele, who he had in Chemistry and would always help him when he was confused.

He put up the top half of his hair in a bun at the back of his head and waved to everybody beside him-- Noa responded with a nod and Mikaele with a smile, but Leandro was frozen staring at him.

 _He’s… kind of cute._ Akira decided to wink at him just for the hell of it, and laughed as his face turned as red as the traffic light.

But then the light changed to green, and he took off.

Leandro, in his shock, almost missed the green light. Who did he think he was, winking at him out of nowhere? Oh, he knew Akira Kogane, alright-- he was that guy who’d always get into fights. He’d constantly hear the school’s secretary call him into the principal’s office over the intercom. As far as he knew his grades were alright, but his discipline issues were constant.

“I wonder why Akira’s out this late.” Mikaele mumbled from the backseat. “I hope he’s alright.”

“Wouldn’t put it past him to be running away from the police,” Noa teased. “But I guess the bad boys are your type, huh, Leo?”

Leandro jumped and scowled at his friend. “Okay, first of all, I wasn’t checking him out, so jot that down.” he responded. “Second of all, even if I was, okay, he… he’s probably, like, not into guys, so...”

Noa shook her head. “Doubt it. I heard he’s turned down, like, ten girls this year alone. Never heard of him getting a girlfriend. And he _winked_ at you.”

Leandro was quiet for a long time before they got to the beach. “So… do you, like… think I have a shot? With Akira?”

Mikaele laughed, loud and booming. “I knew it!”

When they finally arrived at the beach access, they drove along the shore for a good, long while until they came upon a pretty isolated area. There were fewer people around since it was so late, but it was still more comfortable to be as far from all the noise and lights as possible.

They stepped out of the Landmaster and slowly parked it on the sand, waiting for the teleportation ports at its base to power down and lower the vehicle into the ground. Noa took out her receiver from its box again and held it out in front of her, twisting and turning knobs. Mikaele took off his shirt and his shoes and stepped into the water, visibly much more relaxed since they had picked him up. Leandro sat down on the sand and looked up, smiling up at the sight of tiny little white stars dotting the sky. It wasn’t as clear as he would’ve liked, but it was something.

It was _11:38 PM_ , and he had fourteen missed calls from his aunt. He didn’t care that much, he realized-- he was where he wanted to be. He’d ask for forgiveness later. As he looked up at the moon, now almost directly above them, he felt his chest grow lighter. Yeah, he’d ask for forgiveness _much_ later. Right now, he wanted to enjoy the time he had looking up at his moon, clear and quiet.

Well, maybe just clear. Noa’s machine was going nuts.

“G-Guys! Guys, something’s wrong!” she exclaimed. She had waded into the water, the waves hitting her knees, and was holding the radio directly in front of her. It was lighting up tons of different colors and its screens were blocked with lines of weird text that she didn’t recognize.

“Did you drop it or something? Maybe you got it wet?” Mikaele suggested, and he walked up beside her.

“No, I swear, I didn’t, I--” she turned to look at Leandro for help, but she froze as she saw his face. “L… Leandro?” she asked.

“Hmm? What?” The boy in question looked between his two friends, who stared at him with shocked expressions. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Dude, your freckles…” Mikaele pointed at his face and Leandro reached up to touch his cheeks. “They’re… they’re glowing, dude.”

Leandro furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and took out his phone, setting the camera to selfie mode so he could look at himself. His jaw dropped.

All of the hundreds of tiny little freckles on his face were glowing-- and they weren’t just glowing, they were pulsating like a heartbeat, rhythmically, in a bright turquoise shade. He dropped his phone in the sand. “O-Oh my _god_?”

Suddenly, the ground beneath them started shaking.

Leandro stood and looked around him for anything that could’ve caused the tremor. It was dark, and there weren’t many lit up areas around them, so he couldn’t see anything. It felt like the ground was being pulled out from under them.

Suddenly, he saw a pair of glaring headlights light up far to his left, and he turned, trying to protect his eyes. Then, he heard a voice, and the lights turned off.

“What’s going on?” Akira asked, and he walked out from where he had parked his hoverbike. Leandro flushed and covered his face with his hand, turning away to hide the glowing freckles. _What’s_ he _doing here?_

“W-We don’t know!” Noa answered. Her machine began to short-circuit and she dropped it, kicking it away from her. “Leo--”

Another vehicle joined the fray just then-- a Dragonfly, the signature vehicle of the Midnight City police force. Two men stepped out and walked towards Akira, who was staring at the both of them incredulously.

“Akira, what the hell?” One of the men asked.

“R-Ryu, what are you doing here?” Akira asked, and he stepped towards the other three teenagers, eyebrows furrowed. “What… what’s going on!?”

“We’re taking you home. You three kids should be heading home, too, it’s way too late to be--” The other man, the one who was dressed like an actual police officer, was cut off by the tremors getting stronger and stronger.

“ _Look!_ ”

Mikaele was pointing at a glowing mass beneath the water, approaching them rapidly. Everybody stepped back, away from the shore, and Noa’s short frame cowered behind Mikey.

Suddenly, the the seawater before them split in half, leaving a clear path before them. At its very center was Noa’s machine, now calm and drenched, but with one of the screens displaying a bright, blue arrow pointing down towards where the water split. Behind it was a giant hunk of round metal attached to a flat panel, entirely made of black metal.

“It… It’s the black box!” Noa exclaimed.

A voice in the back of Leandro’s mind told him to look down at his watch.

It was midnight.


End file.
